Pages

Sunday, July 30, 2017

News:: What is the hardest game you have ever played?

Sitting on my desk right now are unopened copies of Bloodborne and Dark Souls 2. Having just got a PlayStation 4, I’m playing a bit of catch up with some of the games I’ve missed over its life. I’ve never played a Dark Souls game. In fact, I can’t name a FromSoftware game I’ve played off the top of my head. But I’ve always wanted to play the products they make because I am in great need of a real challenge.

Gaming has, either through design or through my years of training, become too breezy of an experience for me. Playing against others is always good for a challenge, but it’s been years since a single-player experience made me want to cry and give up. In fact, it’s been more than 20 years because no game made me want to give up the hobby forever more than Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

I lost count of how many lives I lost playing this game, how many times I had to break out the Game Genie to get past a level. Every step I took in that game put me closer to death with far too many enemies on the screen for me to handle. It’s a twitchy experience I spent plenty of weekends trying to conquer, but every time I rented it I found it to be a total waste of money. It made me want to hate Star Wars years before Jar Jar Binks did.

Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is my white whale, and it’s impossible compared to the walks in the park listed below.